I think it was discussed here and on the Amazon boards. Time flies you know!
Lookie here - we were both discussing this back in 2010 when they started removing it:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/arc...p/t-90773.html
Previously, there were no free books in the Australian store, they all cost $2 (when compared with the USA store for $0). Which was how we knew about the "free whispernet" not being free. But now, free books in the USA are free in Australian stores too.